Wednesday, 14 March 2018

Sam Silver

Sam Silverhas a kind of permanent identity crisis; not only hers, but also other people's. Her life is a disaster area, and she usually fabricates her origins. She carries genuine identification in her wallet, but people assume it's fake. She looks about half her true age of thirty-five, and most people feel uneasy in her presence. She doesn't tick their mental boxes. She's taller than most women, wears her hair cut in a ragged crop, and confuses onlookers by wearing a heavy men's coat and boots teamed with a scary fuchsia mini dress. Most people assume she's a teenaged boy in drag. Sam resents this, but she also plays it, refusing to make the adjustments that might make her identifiable as a woman in her thirties. She also has a prickly, defensive manner which, along with the uneasiness she engenders in most people, sees her stuck in a rut of temporary employment when she often loses.Sam has family; a mother named Sherry who doesn't want her around because her new husband believes she's thirty-nine, and a grandmother who has virtually disowned them both. Sherry's husband thinks Sam is nineteen, and Sherry is afraid Sam will let slip that she remembers the 1990s. Her great-aunt Sofia, the only person Sam really loves, is grieving the death of her longtime lover, and Sam is too broken (and too broke) to go to her. Even Sam's natural musical talent is flawed; she has two distinct singing voices, soprano and baritone, and although she can play various instruments she has never been able to use her talents for profit.

Sam's fortunes change when she's picked up in a bar by an engaged couple. The young man, who looks around eighteen, claims to be twenty-eight. Intrigued at finding a fellow-sufferer, Sam goes home with Peck Grene and his fiancee Chloe, determined to milk the situation for anything she can get. Sam Silver has what she considers a stray cat mentality. She's forever looking for somewhere warm and safe but wary of letting down her guard. She's hoping for a good meal and maybe a bed for the night, but her decision to go with her new acquaintances brings her a good deal more than that. It leads to her meeting with Oash, and to the missing pieces of her puzzle. Finally, Sam knows who and what she is. A wholly wonderful life is there for her taking... if she can bring herself to take a chance.Sam is a main character in Sam and the Sylvan, and we see later parts of her story in Sunshower. ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author,anthologist and reader. She runs Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!